Facets of Revolution Excerpt

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Available Sept. 27

One

Almaluc – A space station above the planet Jettie

Selene tilted the cup she held to admire the lovely reddish color of the liquid inside. It really was the perfect shade. A delight for the eyes and a promise for the palate.

It was amazing how a love of plants steeped in hot liquid was a universal concept that transcended boundaries of culture and species.

From the seemingly infinite variations of tea and coffee you encountered while visiting human space to the Haldeel’s zier, an underwater flower that released a unique neurotoxin when exposed to hot water that made the lips, tongue, and throat tingle while stimulating the nervous system in much the same way caffeine did humans.

And finally, the Tuann laug, the beverage Selene was currently enjoying.

Closing her eyes, Selene lifted the cup to her lips, breathing in the steam for a short second before indulging in a tiny sip.

Yes. Absolutely perfect.

The taste was unlike anything else Selene had encountered. It wasn’t quite an oolong. Something about the high and low notes in the tea were a little too spicy for that. If Selene had to pick a comparison, she would say it was a much more mellow version of chai. A little bit smoother with a more delicate finish.

It was the kind of tea you might savor in the quiet moments. Those times when you wanted to bask in simplicity.

Selene set the delicate cup on the saucer she held.

“You were right. This was well worth the experience,” Selene told the person sitting across from her.

The woman finished pouring her own cup before setting down the pot and straightening. Everything about her—from her elegant bearing to the floor length robes and the way her straight black hair was arranged so it cascaded over her shoulder—was a carefully crafted image designed to put Selene at ease and lower her guard.

Yukina was about as far from being the refined, gentle creature she was portraying herself as one could get. As the oldest Face of the Tuann emperor, she was someone who regularly swam in the shark-infested waters of some of the most politically dangerous arenas in both the Haldeel and Tuann empires.

She didn’t spend her time sipping tea while exchanging inane chatter with perfect strangers. Not unless it served her agenda in some way.

Selene studied Yukina over the rim of her cup, taking in every shift of the woman’s expression. It wasn’t easy. Yukina didn’t give her much to work with.

There was a reason the forty-three had listed Yukina as one of the top ten Tuann to avoid under any circumstances. The other used deceit and manipulation the same way most breathed air. You could never trust what she was showing you on the surface. It made her a difficult opponent. Even for someone as experienced as Selene in the art of deception and misdirection.

“I am so glad you enjoyed it.” Yukina paused. “If you were to return home, you would find many other things to your liking.”

Selene hid her smile behind her cup. No wonder Kira had so much trouble with this one. For someone as used to saying what she meant as Kira, it would be difficult to play these subtle word games.

Not that Selene thought Kira incapable of it. Selene didn’t think there was anything Kira wasn’t capable of. But such methods would annoy her youngest sister.

And an irritated Kira was rather dangerous.

No, Kira preferred to beat and batter the situation until it took the shape she wanted. She lacked patience. It was her defining weakness—and sometimes her greatest strength.

Selene was different. Patience was where she lived. Sometimes for too long. She would rather the moment pass than risk herself.

In Yukina, Selene saw a kindred spirit. Each understood that words were a weapon every bit as dangerous as a blade. That it took a deft hand to shape and mold them to their maximum potential.

Perhaps had circumstances been different—had Selene not been kidnapped from the Tuann as a child and grown up in hell—they might have enjoyed matching wits in this fashion.

They could have been—maybe not friends—but acquaintances who regularly challenged each other to a battle of wits.

Selene thought she might have enjoyed that.

As she was thinking, her gaze drifted to the man standing behind Yukina. The armor he was wearing was distinctive of a Tuann oshota, an elite warrior class responsible for the protection of their chosen one, the person they called a sword. Known as synth armor, it was far more advanced than anything humans had created.

Harder than any metal or alloy, it could stop all but the most extreme ballistic weapons. However, it wasn’t without its drawbacks, proving weak to en-blades and a few other types of weapons.

This version was a matte black darker than the void of space outside this ship.

He was tall, towering over Yukina with broad shoulders and a wide chest that pointed to a life devoted to training.

Despite his size, he was trying not to seem dangerous—and doing a bad job of it.

Selene suspected that the reason for that was his eyes. They were the first thing you noticed about him. A gold that was striking against his light brown skin.

He watched Selene with the kind of intensity that said he was trying to peel back her skin to study what lay under it.

“See something interesting?” he asked.

Selene played with the handle of her cup. The revelation of secrets was a delicate thing.

Too much and you risked destroying the very thing you hoped to help. Too little and nothing ever changed.

Selene needed change. They all did.

Very well. A hint then.

“I knew a boy with eyes like yours once.” Selene pretended not to notice the subtle tension that entered the man’s stance or the way everything about him sharpened.

The man tried to stare Selene down, a predator in that moment before it struck. “And what happened to that boy?”

Selene occupied herself with her cup and the liquid inside, done with this topic for now. “Some stones should be left unturned.”

Yukina and the man exchanged a quiet look before Yukina took the lead in the conversation once again.

“You’re very different from her.”

“No one is like Kira. She is unique.”

“You sound admiring.”

“Do I?” Selene swirled the liquid in her cup. “Perhaps that is because I am. She is the best of us.”

“There are more then?” Yukina asked, as if she didn’t already know after Selene’s hint earlier.

“There are.”

“Why won’t they return to us?”

Selene couldn’t tell if the ache in Yukina’s voice was real or not. In a sense, it didn’t matter.

The forty-three were aware that the Tuann yearned for those they lost in an event they called the Sorrowing. It was a time when hundreds of their children were taken from them and hundreds more of their people were killed.

It was a devastating blow for a people who reproduced extremely slowly. The mental bonds the Tuann made with their loved ones made it doubly so. When those ties were severed in such a traumatic fashion, it caused the slow decline of those left behind.

Those Tuann who couldn’t recover perished as they faded away from sorrow.

Selene was sure it felt like a dream to discover not all of those children had died. It was a gift the Tuann would never walk away from. They didn’t realize the cost their former children had already paid for survival. The nightmares they still lived with.

That hell had tempered the two youngest, Kira and Jin. Like phoenixes, they’d risen from the ashes of their beginnings.

The rest of the forty-three weren’t so lucky. They were broken.

Monsters—better left alone.

Selene feared the Tuann wouldn’t accept who the forty-three had to become in order to survive—or what was done to them.

Perhaps because of their long lives there was a rigidity to their social structure. And the stolen children would never be bound again.

She blinked at her tea, dismissing the memories through an effort of will.

Across from her, Yukina reached for her own cup, taking a small sip as she studied Selene in the same way Selene had her earlier. “The trip to Ta Sa’Riel will take up to a month. There will be a lot of time to discover what other things you may have missed in the intervening years.”

A faint smile graced Selene’s face.

Clever woman. Yukina acted like Selene’s accompaniment was already a foregone conclusion.

It was a move taken out of Selene’s own playbook when dealing with her children. How strange to see her own tactics used against her.

While she was considering Yukina, the doorway adjacent to their table dissolved to reveal a pair of people—a mountain of a man in matte black synth armor in the process of murmuring something to his companion.

A woman. Tall by human standards, though still short compared to the man. Gray-purple eyes that seemed like they’d seen all the pain this world had to offer focused on Selene. Their owner scanned her quickly as if to assure herself Selene was in once piece.

Hair the color of wine framed delicate features. Like Kira, it was untamed. Beautiful in its disarray.

Warmth filled Selene’s chest. She’d come.

Against all odds. Despite any arguments the Tuann would have thrown her way.

Kira’s face revealed a worry Selene knew she didn’t deserve. Not after all that she’d done. The wrongs she and the rest of the forty-three had turned their faces from. Determined not to see. Or feel. Or interfere with.

Despite all the anger and hurt, Kira had set it aside to come to Selene’s rescue. Willing to risk everything.

It was why the forty-three loved her and Jin so much—though they made sure the two never realized.

Kira and Jin were the sun and the forty-three the planets that watched over them from afar. Only intervening when the worst possible outcome was assured.

Such as was the case on Rothchild.

There was a loud clink in the sudden silence as Yukina set her cup down harder than necessary.

“Why did you bring her here?” Yukina demanded of the mountain standing next to Kira.

“She’s rather persistent when she wants to be.” Graydon prowled into the room, his movements like that of a lion. Someone dangerous and assured of his place at the top of the food chain.

Kira remained motionless on the threshold. Her hands moved in an unobtrusive gesture Selene remembered from their childhood when any form of unauthorized communication would result in a beating.

Roughly, the gesture meant, “Do you need assistance?”

Selene ran a finger along the rim of her ear. “Do not interfere.”

Once, her ears had been as pointed as the Tuann’s across from her. Now, like the rest of the forty-three and Kira, they were docked to allow them to blend in with humans easier. Just one more scar that separated them from their former brethren.

“I don’t care how persistent she is. Her presence here is not welcome,” Yukina said to Graydon as he sprawled in the seat next to her.

“You’re welcome to try to move her,” Graydon rumbled with an amused look that said he looked forward to the attempt.

It was strange. If asked, Selene would have said Graydon was far too loyal to his emperor and his position as the emperor’s Face to be here, helping Kira circumvent another Face’s will.

Yet that was exactly what he was doing.

Kira stepped into the room, revealing the man waiting behind her. Selene sucked in a harsh breath as recognition darted through her.

Taller than Kira, the man wore a pair of wire-framed glasses that managed to make him seem almost nondescript.

“Alexander,” Selene whispered.

Hope was a fragile concept, and it was one of the first things their masters had beaten out of them. What was the use of wishes and dreams when your present was filled with nothing but survival at all costs?

That loss made you forget that such a thing ever existed in the first place.

She never in a million years would have hoped for Alexander’s interference in this matter. Life had taught her to be pragmatic.

Something as innocuous as a prince riding to a damsel’s rescue was as far out of reach as the sky was for a frog stuck at the bottom of a well.

“What is the meaning of this?” Yukina demanded as Selene experienced the unsettling sensation of butterflies in her stomach. Something she thought she was much too jaded to ever entertain.

It took a moment to understand Kira’s expression, the pinched, almost combative look that made her seem as bristly as a porcupine.

Kira was worried, Selene realized with a soft amazement.

She shouldn’t be. She’d given Selene a gift beyond measure by convincing Alexander to come. Selene had always thought she was done with that fleeting emotion called hope. Kira had shown her she wasn’t.

What a lovely discovery after all this time.

Alexander spared Selene the briefest of glances as he entered. Kira shadowed him, keeping to the edges of the room. As if by doing so, she could keep her presence unobtrusive.

Unlikely, but Selene appreciated the attempt.

“Would anyone care to explain why the Tuann abducted a Haldeel citizen from one of our planets?” Alexander asked, coming to a stop beside Selene.

He reached down, dragging a chair out from the table with a loud squeal before lowering his bulk into it.

For such a big man, he could move silently when he wanted to.

“I’d consider your next words carefully if you don’t want a war,” Alexander advised when Yukina simply stared.

Graydon reached for a bowl of fruit, snagging one of the blue spheres and popping it into his mouth.

“She is Tuann,” Yukina finally said.

“She is a Haldeel citizen. As such, not even your emperor can remove her from our borders against her will.”

Alexander placed a token on the table before pushing the button at its center. An image with Selene’s face was projected into the air, along with a full set of papers proclaiming her citizenship of a Haldeel planet.

Yukina studied them for half a second. “They’re legitimate.”

“I know.” The smile that touched Alexander’s face was sharp and faintly mocking. “Why do you think I’m here?”

“Why weren’t the Tuann informed that one of us had applied for citizenship?” Yukina asked.

“You’re our allies; not our masters. Do you think the Haldeel are required to keep you apprised of our own affairs?”

The skin around Yukina’s eyes tightened. She didn’t like that question, and it was easy to see why. Alexander’s argument had the advantage of being legally full proof. The Tuann would be hard-pressed to come up with a counter that would allow them to take Selene without her permission.

If she wanted, Selene could take the hand Alexander was offering and walk out of here free and clear. The Tuann wouldn’t be able to touch her. Their enemies, on the other hand, wouldn’t be so easily dissuaded.

They were the ones the forty-three were most concerned with.

The wisest choice would be to take the exit Alexander procured and disappear. It would take time, but she could establish another home for herself and the children Kira had rescued. She would have peace in her life. Far from the threat of danger.

Nothing would change. Particularly not her.

As if from a distance, Selene heard herself speak up. “I’ll go.”

Kira straightened from the wall.

A balloon built in Selene’s chest. “I’ll go with them. I’ll accompany the Tuann to their home world.”

Relief replaced the tight feeling of that balloon. She’d done it. She’d taken that first and hardest step into the light.

“What are you doing right now?” Kira loomed over Selene in a manner Selene knew wasn’t meant to be intimidating. Her sister couldn’t help her nature. Even as a child, Kira’s stare could make others back down when she was angry. As an adult, that ability had only grown.

Ignoring the hot splash of power against her skin, Selene reached for the pot of tea and filled a second cup before handing it to Kira.

Bafflement showed on Kira’s expression as she took the offered tea.

“They issued an invitation, and I am accepting,” Selene said by way of explanation.

Kira raised the cup and blew on its surface before taking a small sip. She made a pleased expression. “You have obligations. Remember?”

“I would never forget.”

The children were Selene’s heart and soul. They were her salvation at a time when she’d contemplated ending the monotony of her existence.

Selene didn’t think Kira was aware of how close she’d been to the abyss when that first child was brought to her. Or maybe Kira knew, and the children were her solution.

Selene had taken that first child and built a life around them and the others that followed.

She would never leave them in danger.

“I’ve already made arrangements for another to take up my duties in my absence.”

“Are you sure about this?”

“Yes.”

Selene had never been surer of anything.

Something inside her said Kira would have need of her soon. That her presence was necessary for the other’s survival. If that was the case, Selene planned to accompany her—whether the rest of the forty-three approved or not.

“Much as it pains me to say—I agree with Kira. It will not be easy to leave later.” Alexander’s gaze bored into the side of Selene’s face.

Kira continued to sip her tea, watching the byplay between them with a look of avid interest.

“It is time,” Selene said, facing Alexander.

His disapproval over this course of action radiated from every line of his body.

Selene channeled the calm that had served her well in the worst times of her life as she met his stare. One no less intimidating than Kira’s own.

Selene didn’t let herself waver, despite the instinct warning her to retreat. That she wasn’t as powerful as either of the other two. It was one she had practice in denying.

She wouldn’t allow herself to be swayed. This was her path. She would take it no matter the cost.

Alexander’s eyes closed in defeat. “Very well. If that is your wish.”

Kira gave him an appalled look. “That’s it? That’s all you have to say? She tells you she’s going and you’re like, okay?”

Alexander glared at their youngest sister. “She isn’t as reckless as some I could name.”

Kira’s scowl deepened. “I’m not reckless.”

A scoff came from across the table. The target of Kira’s ire shifted to Graydon.

“Then it’s settled. We’ll leave in two days,” Yukina said, quick to press her advantage.

To her credit, there was no sign of smug victory, her expression as calmly poised as it had been before Alexander and Kira’s interruption.

“Not quite.” Alexander gave the emperor’s Face an unamused smile. “I’ll be accompanying Selene to your planet.”

A choked sound came from Kira as she lifted her head to stare. “Is this a joke?”

Alexander ignored her as he focused on the Tuann.

Yukina gave him a polite smile that did nothing to conceal her dislike. “As noble as your offer is, I’m afraid you’re not invited.”

Alexander lifted a hand, ki pooling his palm. Before the rest could react, he slammed his hand onto the table. A concussive wave erupted.

For a split second, nothing happened. Then the table crumpled as if a giant had smashed it as flat as a thin piece of paper.

“Whoa.” Kira’s expression hinted at a jealousy Selene found amusing.

If her sister wanted, Kira could do far more than flatten a table.

Faint interest showed on Graydon’s face before he selected another piece of fruit from the sideboard and popped it in his mouth.

“What about now?” Alexander asked with a smile as polite as the one Yukina had just offered him.

Yukina’s gaze lifted. “The Tuann welcomes the return of our child.”